Hayden Panettiere Talks About Self-Love

Hayden Panettiere is opening up about why she ended her romance with Laguna Beach alumnus and Hollywood's Junior Varsity man-slut, Stephen Colletti.

"I just knew I wanted to breathe," Panettiere, 18, says in the April issue of Seventeen magazine. "I wanted to be single at the time."

Of the need to take time for just her, she said: "It just hit me like a ton of bricks: This is the time I need to be with myself. It takes such a secure person to be with someone like me ... it takes so much confidence; it takes so much trust."

Ouch. So Stephen Colletti is neither confident or trustworthy? Dude did two-time Lauren Conrad and Kristin Cavallari, of course. Just sayin'.

At least Hayden found a new love right away: marine mammals.

A warrant was issued for her arrest in Japan after she interfered in a dolphin hunt last year. Hayden was undeterred by the violent protest.

"There's very little that scares me," the actress tells Seventeen.

Hayden Panettiere doesn't apologize for being so outspoken.

"I've always been a physical person. I feel like a lot of time in this industry, a lot of people loan their face to a cause, which is great, but it doesn't do as much as getting out there and actually physically doing something."

"I don't need to prove myself to anyone," she says. "I'm not that kind of person. I know myself much better now than I did [before], and my opinions of things and my morals - I am not as easily swayed as I used to be."

"When you learn to accept yourself, learn to be okay with yourself and know yourself, the easier it is to love somebody and allow them to love you."